It often becomes necessary to abrade the surface of a floor in order to remove accumulated debris such as wax, dirt, spilled materials such as rubbers and plastics, dried blood and other packing house debris and the like. Various scarifying machines have been developed for this purpose, as exemplified in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,185,350, 3,678,532, 3,365,772, 3,309,729 and others. Such machines make use, for the most part, of discs having sharpened or pointed peripheries, the discs being mounted to motor-driven rotating plates. The motor driven assembly is usually mounted to a handle in a customary manner.
Commonly, only the abrading discs are in contact with the floor surface to be cleaned. Although scarifying or abrading machines of the type described can quickly remove debris from a floor surface, a great deal of care and often considerable operator strength are required to properly operate such machines. Typically, if the rotating mounting plate is not maintained substantially parallel to the floor surface, discs on one side of the mounting plate will dig with greater force into the floor, causing the machine to develop a rhythmical, "bucking" motion which may be very difficult for an operator to control. Further, the gouging of the discs into the floor surface in this manner may leave unsightly marks in the floor. It will be evident that the bucking motion of a scarifying machine, which often causes the machine to "walk" across a floor, is exceedingly dangerous to the operator. Another problem involves the propensity of certain of such machines to clog up with debris. Rotation of the discs causes debris to be thrown upwardly against the undersurface of the disc mounting plate where it may accumulate to eventually interfere with operation of the machine.